This date in baseball
APRIL 18
1899 John McGraw made his managerial debut at age 26 with the Baltimore Orioles. He led them to a 5-3 victory over the New York Giants, a team he later managed for more than 30 years.
1916 Philadelphia’s Grover Alexander pitched his first of 16 shutouts of the season with a victory over the Boston Braves.
1923 In the first game played in New York’s Yankee Stadium, a record crowd of 72,400 watched Babe Ruth lead the Yankees past the Boston Red Sox with a home run.
1945 In his major league debut, one-armed outfielder Pete Gray had one hit in four at-bats in the St. Louis Browns’ 7-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers.
1942 Due to the fear of a Japanese attack, west coast military leaders ask the Pacific Coast League to limit crowds to 3,000 fans.
1946 Jackie Robinson makes his minor league debut for the Montreal Royals, the International League affiliate club of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1950 The first opening night game was held in St. Louis. The Cardinals, behind a complete game by Gerry Staley and home runs from Red Schoendienst and Stan Musial, beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-2.
1955 Roberto Clemente hit first major league home run, an inside-the-park home run, for the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 12-3 loss to the New York Giants.
1958 The LA Dodgers play their first game at the Los Angeles Coliseum in front of a crowd of 78,672.
1964 Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers strikes out the side on nine pitches, becoming the first pitcher in major league history to achieve the feat twice.
1970 Nolan Ryan of the New York Mets allowed one hit — a leadoff single by Denny Doyle — and struck out 15 in a 7-0 victory over Philadelphia.
1982 The Atlanta Braves defeated the Astros 6-5 in Houston for their 11th consecutive win to start the season, a National League record.
1987 Philadelphia’s Mike Schmidt hit his 500th home run with two outs in the ninth to rally the Phillies to an 8-6 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium.
1997 Roger Pavlik of the Texas Rangers became the first American League pitcher to walk the first four batters of the game in a 6-5 loss to Toronto.
2000 Adam Kennedy tied a club record with eight RBI and came within a double of the cycle as the Anaheim Angels defeated Toronto 16-10. A hot dog promotion at the SkyDome went awry as fans got splattered with bits of wiener when they fell apart in mid air after being shot from the “Hot Dog Blaster.” Although the hot dogs repeatedly disintegrated, promoters continued shooting them into the stands.
2005 The New York Yankees scored 13 runs in the second inning of a 19-8 victory over Tampa Bay. The last time New York scored 13 runs in an inning was June 21, 1945, in the fifth inning of a 14-4 victory at Boston.
2006 Luis González of the Arizona Diamondbacks doubles to become the 21st major leaguer with 300 home runs and 500 doubles.
2007 Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox faced the minimum 27 batters in a 6-0 no-hit victory over the Texas Rangers. Buehrle walked Sammy Sosa with one out in the fifth, then promptly picked him off first base.
2009 Asdrubal Cabrera and Mark DeRosa went a combined 8 for 13, with 11 RBI in Cleveland’s 22-4 victory against New York at Yankee Stadium. The Indians put together the first record-setting performance in the new Yankee Stadium, scoring 14 runs in the second inning — the most allowed by New York in an inning.
2017 Pirates All-Star center fielder Starling Marte is handed an 80-game suspension for testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug.
2018 Owners of the worst record in the majors at 3-15, the Cincinnati Reds fire manager Bryan Price following a 2-0 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.